Statue from Southeast Asia... On our back patio.  The other pictures today were taken within one minute of this one.

This is the way my afternoon went.  I read The New Yorker Letter from Reykjavik, which the magazine called Cool Runnings about the recent election of Gudni Johannesson to be President of Iceland.  Then I went out with my camera and took a couple of pictures for the BLOG.  I was in the middle of taking pictures of ordinary plants not ten steps from the back door of our living room when it occurred to me that the plants on the back patio at our house, like the geraniums I photographed yesterday, are a lot like the country of Iceland.  The whole country of Iceland is not even one third the size of the city of San Diego where I live.  The new President of Iceland  was a university of Iceland professor before he was elected.  This piece is not about Gudni or Iceland.  It is about the fact that something beautiful and exceptional doesn’t have to be big. 

This BLOG entry is about America and its President and about the election that is coming to put someone else in his place.

I chased a little hummingbird around this afternoon hoping to get a picture, but I finally gave up and took some pictures of geranium’s in baskets on our back patio.  That, too, is the way life is. I confess that I was especially happy with the red geranium right from the start... and after some thought, I got happier with the pink ones.

A  couple of moments from today that I remember.  First, I am writing this BLOG piece at 8:30 pm after listening to Hillary Clinton make her acceptance speech.  She is not a strong orator.  She is a strong individual whom I trust to be our President.  Her speech was more plodding and straight forward than it was a masterpiece of oratory. She didn't try to be cute.   She is strong.  She has a plan.  I like her.

The second memory for today takes me back to my walk from the little green chevrolet car which I had left on Park Boulevard.  As I came to the wide place in the Park with the fountain in front of the science museum,  a woman, I’m guessing it was a woman, came toward me dressed as if she were in a play or as if she might have been heading to a costume party.  Her head was hidden entirely..  My impulse was to grab my camera bag, take out the little Sony, and chase the person to get a picture.  She passed within a couple of feet of me.  I got out the camera, and my eyes dropped to the ground ahead of me and I saw the beetle, upside down, dead, in the bright afternoon sunlight.  I choose the beetle for my picture.  I have wondered all through the afternoon why I chose the beetle instead of the person.  I don’t know why.  When I went back to the car in the afternoon, I looked for the beetle; and it was still there.  Nobody had accidentally or on-purpose stepped on it.  

When I came down the stairs to our front door this morning, I saw a little swinging thing  above some green plants that I have been trying to keep alive in dry weather.   The spider was finishing a web and was paying little if any attention to the big guy walking, then standing, and watching it   I carefully took out my little pocket camera and set the adjustment to a close-up setting.  I moved close to the little creature… and startled it.  It quickly moved up and away from the guy with the camera.  Then it did what I guess spiders do when startled and threatened.  It wrapped its legs around it’s body and quietly, surely ceased moving any part at all.  I got close, with great respect, and got one picture.  It’s the one I’ve included in this BLOG today.  

Margaret, Nancy, and I went back to Balboa Park: the Japanese Tea Garden and the Mengei Museum.  Nancy goes home to Maryland tomorrow, so we wanted to get as much of our beautiful park into our schedule as possible.  The Japanese Tea Garden is enlarged and many changes have been made in it since we were last there.  The strolling garden on the hillside in back of the entrance is a wonder of working something beautiful from a very small space.  When the cherry blossoms bloomed in the springtime, I looked over them from the viewing area near the entrance.  I thought it was a good way to see them, but now I can hardly wait for springtime to come again because I can see what I was missing by not going down among the trees

The visit to the Mengei Museum was a reminder that the world is wide and big and wondrous.  It’s hard to believe we once were in a war with the Japanese.  I wonder what was happening with the tea garden when the war was underway and where were these wonderful pots and other Japanese crafts kept in San Diego during the war.  Learning what happened in the early 40s with this part of the Park will be a project that I'll begin.  

David, Margaret, Nancy and I went to the San Diego Museum of Art today.  We were reminded that San Diego, with its Balboa Park and with the museums, is a very good place to live... and to visit. I never get tired of seeing the works of Rivera, Cotan, and Johns... but of all the great works of art that we saw today, the one I go back to see over and over again is the Portrait of a Man by Giorgione.  Wow!

Supper with Ed Jirjis at his house.  Wonderful time.

Cedar Street, Little Italy Farmer's Market.

We've just come off three days of the Republican National Convention, the time when the Republican Party selected Donald Trump as its candidate for the November elections.  Mr. Trump announced his choice of individual for Vice President.  Tonight Hillary Clinton announced her choice for Vice President, and he turns out to be someone I don't know personally but is married to someone I do know, the former Anne Holton.  Anne Holton Kaine and Tim Kaine have three children.  Good choice.

This afternoon Nancy and I took a trolley ride down to the Convention Center where Comic Con is in full swing.  Wow!  It's easy not to take about politics in any area where Comic Con is happening.  The sign I liked best is, "Why can't life be like Comic Con?"  After listening to as much of the Republican Convention as I could stomach, I believe the presidential election cycle this year has been too much like Comic Con.  Give us a break, PLEASE.  Next week's Democratic National Convention should be better.  Here's hoping...

Supper with The Davids, Margaret and Nancy... and Cali, Cookie, and Tommy.  Great evening.

I'm a few days behind in my blogging, so I'm taking this day, Wednesday, July 20, to catch up.  The first pictures are from Monday, the 18th, when we walked up the Big River from Mendocino.  The third picture was taken toward the end of the big day, Sue's big day, when Nancy was pitching the corn bag, and Jeremy was waiting his turn.  The fourth picture is of David getting ready to throw and Shane waiting his turn.  Next is Sue's house with the great group of people seated for a wonderful meal.  The last pictures were taken on Tuesday at the Aquarium in Monterey and along the coast below Carmel.  Life is good!